Condos, offices, fitness businesses planned for proposed downtown Spokane building

A five-story, mixed-use building is planned for a lot adjacent to the old state armory on Second Avenue in downtown Spokane.

The Pacific Building would stretch across the entire frontage of Bernard Street between Second and Pacific Avenue, and will have underground parking, retail space, offices and condominiums.

Gerry Kofmehl is the developer of the project, which was originally proposed in 2010. Brian Butler, who has already leased space in the planned building for his company, Precision Pilates, called himself a spokesman for the building.

“Construction is contingent on presale. We’re at 30 percent, and we’d like to get to 60,” Butler said. “But we’re ready to roll.”

Butler said the first two floors will be retail and likely house a 1,200-square-foot cafe to attract the people who attend the Pilates classes.

The top floor will be condos. The remaining floors will house offices for businesses in the health and wellness industry, such as physical therapists, occupational therapists and plastic surgeons, Butler said.

Kofmehl owns the three separate parcels comprising the site, two of which are surface parking. The third parcel has a one-story building built in 1909 and renovated in 1991. Butler said the building, the current location of his Pilates business, would be demolished.

Butler said he anticipated the remaining space to go quickly.

“We really have a goal of starting the project late spring or early summer,” he said.

New businesses coming to former Mann Center site

A Circle K gas station and $4.3 million storage facility will greet northbound traffic to the Hillyard historic business district.

According to permit activity with the city, the former site of the Joe E. Mann Center, 4415 N. Market St., will house eight storage-unit buildings on the north end of the property. The southern point of the oddly-shaped parcel will have a gas station, store and parking.

The store will be nearly 5,000-square-feet in size, open 24 hours a day and sell alcohol, according to city permit information. There will be eight fuel pumps.

William Scarbough, with Arizona-based Land Development Consultants, is leading the gas station project.

Douglass Properties, of Spokane, is developing the storage buildings, which are between 7,500 and 12,000 square feet in size. Mercier Architecture & Planning, of Spokane, designed the buildings.

The former U.S. Army Reserve site has been listed for disposal since 2005 as part of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. After years of discussions between city, school and tribal leaders failed to develop any material plans, the site was vandalized and plans collapsed.

Harlan Douglass and his wife, Maxine, who own Douglass Properties, bought the Mann Center in 2015 for $1.6 million in an auction from the U.S. government, according to county property records. The assessed value of the property at the time was listed at more than $2.8 million.

Last year, the buildings were demolished.

Drive-thru coffee chain plans roasting, machine-repair facility

Jacob’s Java has plans to convert an East Sprague Avenue building into a roasting facility and espresso machine-repair facility.

The building at 2502 E. Sprague Ave. will be the local coffee chain’s seventh location. The chain was the first drive-thru coffee shop in Spokane when it opened in 1992 and still has four locations in the city, as well as one each in Airway Heights and Spokane Valley.

The Sprague building was built in 1936 and renovated in 1972, according to county parcel data.

Construction is expected to begin this summer.

Spokane’s Uptic Studios is designing the project.